Baroness Amos: As the Ministerial Code states, when advice from the law officers is included in correspondence between Ministers, or in papers for the Cabinet or ministerial committees, the conclusions may if necessary be summarised but, if this is done, the complete text of the advice should be attached. There is no other guidance on the distribution of the Law Officers' advice to Cabinet.

Lord Laird: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is the current salary scale for Northern Ireland civil service permanent secretaries; and what percentage increases have been made for this scale during each year since 2000.

Baroness Amos: The current salary scale for Northern Ireland civil service permanent secretaries is £89,195 to £192,424. The percentage increases for each year since 2000 are as follows.
	
		
			  
			 2000 2.9 per cent 
			 2001 3 per cent 
			 2002 2.5 per cent 
			 2003 2.25 per cent 
			 2004 2 per cent

Baroness Amos: The current salary scale for the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service is £135,584 to £229,449. The percentage increases for each year since 2000 are as follows.
	
		
			  
			 2000 2.9 per cent 
			 2001 3 per cent 
			 2002 2.5 per cent 
			 2003 2.25 per cent 
			 2004 2 per cent

Baroness Blood: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the State Pathology Department is working to protocols drawn up jointly by the Northern Ireland Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety and the Northern Ireland Office for the investigation of sudden unexpected deaths in children in the region; whether these protocols include the use of double-doctoring with paediatric pathologists; and whether they include the concept of a lead pathologist for each case.

Baroness Amos: The State Pathologist, in collaboration with senior medical officials from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, developed a protocol in March 2004 for the conduct of infant autopsies in coroners' cases. This protocol includes the concept of double doctoring with consultant paediatric pathologists. The NIO is currently working with the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, to develop a regional protocol for the investigation of sudden and unexplained deaths in infants.
	Under the system of double doctoring there is no formalised arrangement for one pathologist leading over the other since these are "joint" examinations, however in non-suspicious deaths it is usual for the paediatric pathologist to do most of the prosection and prepare the report which is then "jointly" signed. In suspected criminal cases, the forensic pathologist would do the majority of the examination and be largely responsible for writing the report. Further thought is currently being given to formalising this arrangement.

Baroness Amos: The Department of Finance and Personnel has a licence agreement with the Elim Pentecostal Church, Bloomfield Road, Bangor for use of the Rathgael House office car park, Bangor. The car park has been in Government ownership for circa 30 years and can only be used for car parking by members of the church congregation or their guests attending church services on a Sunday. The current licence has a fee of £1,750 per annum. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development leases Castlewellan Castle, Castlewellan Forest Park, as a Christian conference centre. The property was acquired in 1967. The lease rental is £850 per annum. The Department for Regional Development's Water Service has leased land adjacent to the Church of the Resurrection, Cavehill Road, Belfast to the church solely for use as a car park. The land was acquired over 100 years ago and attracts a yearly rent of £312.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The available information relates to the London region (i.e. the Metropolitan and City of London police force areas) and is given in the tables. Information on injuries in the London region is only available from 1997.
	Table 1. Offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have been used.
	
		London Region: 1995 to 2003–04
		
			 Period Number of offences 
			 1995 1 1,918 
			 1996 1 1,742 
			 1997 1 2,930 
			 1997–98 1,951 
			 1998–99 2 2,034 
			 1999–2000 2,945 
			 2000–01 3,036 
			 2001–02 3 4,199 
			 2002–03 4,201 
			 2003–04 3,891 
		
	
	Table 2. Offences recorded by the police in which firearms were reported to have caused injury by type of injury.
	
		London Region: 1997 to 2003–04
		
			 Period Fatal injury Serious injury Slight injury 
			 1997 1 26 89 290 
			 1997–98 24 83 294 
			 1998–99 2 19 62 361 
			 1999–2000 24 67 532 
			 2000–01 28 101 603 
			 2001–02 3 44 154 787 
			 2002–03 35 176 771 
			 2003–04 23 159 740 
		
	
	1 Excluding offences of "other criminal damage" of value £20 and under.
	2 There was change in counting rule for recorded crime on 1 April 1998.
	3 Figures for some crime categories may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the national crime recording standard before 1 April 2002.
	 The national crime recording standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures for some crime categories may have been inflated by this.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Government do not consider that the, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (as enacted) affects the Habeas Corpus Act 1679. That Act allows anyone detained, to issue a writ requiring him to be brought before a court to have the lawfulness of his detention determined.
	The 2005 Act in no way precludes this. By virtue of Section 11(1), any habeas corpus application would go to the relevant control order court (as defined in Section 15(1)).

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The Government share the Prison Reform Trust's concern about the number of women in prison, in particular the female remand population and those serving short sentences. We welcomed the report Lacking Conviction which highlights some important issues about the use of custodial remands for women and provides some helpful ideas on how those issues could be tackled. The Government agree that more needs to be done to support greater use of community interventions and bail for women offenders, and to ensure that custody is only used for those who really need to be there.
	We are pursuing these aims through the Women's Offending Reduction Programme which contains action points designed to improve community interventions and services that are better tailored to the needs of women. One of our priorities is to increase opportunities to divert women away from custody at the pre-sentence stage. The programme will address a number of the Prison Reform Trust's recommendations, including: making support in the community more appropriate and accessible for women; developing a community multi-agency approach to tackling women's complex needs; and improving the effectiveness of court-based diversion schemes for women offenders with mental health problems.
	The report also calls for an increase in women-only bail hostels. The National Probation Service accommodation strategy includes a commitment to develop more women-only provision within the approved premises estate.

Lord Warner: The Department of Health is not aware of any satisfactory research into the effects of stimulatory exercises in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
	Discussions at the European network for hyperkinetic disorders has concluded that here is some limited evidence for the value of elimination diets that seek to exclude foods to which intolerance exists, but an elimination diet will only help a minority of children and can be difficult to apply.
	A recent study on the impact of food supplements on the incidence of aggressive behaviour amongst young people in custody has demonstrated positive results but further research is required and the study was not specifically focused on ADHD.